Assassin
by queen-sheep
Summary: [Muggle!AU] It had all started with the curious notice tacked on the school boards around the school. 'Assassin', the poster proclaimed in bold print, with a time and a date for sign up.


_For the QLFC S5 R13 as a reserve for the seeker. So yeah I wrote this in like two hours and halfway through I realized it was almost like a crack or a parody but I kind of just ran with it. Enjoy!_

 _Prompt:_ _Write about an event taking place on a battlefield._

* * *

Harry ducked behind a tree, his heart thrumming madly in his ears. He fumbled for his coat pocket and reassuring felt for the lump there before letting of a shaky sigh. He was so sick of all of this - all the lies, the paranoia, the betrayal. But he had come this far already, and he wasn't going to back down now.

It had all started with the curious notice tacked on the school boards around the school. 'Assassin', the poster proclaimed in bold print, with a time and a date for sign up. As a first year university student, he had wanted to get involved in events and meet new people, and so this campus-wide game had seemed like a good idea.

The rules were simple. There were the leaders, who assigned each person a target to "kill". There were two ways to kill. You could use the killing weapon, which were a pair of balled up socks that outed the target amongst impact, or you could "poison" your target by putting tabasco sauce into their food and having them eat it without noticing. The safe zones were the classrooms that were in session, the dining hall, and the dorm rooms.

But most importantly, once you kill your target, you then received _their_ target. The last person standing wins.

Of course, Harry hadn't wanted to go about it alone, so he dragged his roommate Ron with him and had him sign up as well. Then the girl who sat in the very front during their History lectures had overheard them talking about it and demanded that they show her where the sign ups were, to which she promptly put her name down, introduced herself as Hermione, and then forcefully created a three-way alliance between them.

It had been a whirlwind, but Harry was grateful in the end. Ron was a strategical thinker, and Hermione was both intelligent and took action. Together, they made a pretty solid team, racking up enough kills to make a name for themselves as 'The Golden Trio'.

But the peace hadn't lasted for very long. They had made it successfully through to the halfway point when Ron had fallen first.

It was approaching winter, so of course the lot of them were freezing their butts off on the long, long walk from the dorm rooms to their lecture hall. When they came across the small fundraising stall selling hot chocolate, Ron had purchased one without even thinking and took a sip.

He immediately spat it out again, and stared down at the rapidly cooling liquid all over the pavement. Cho Chang, who had handed him the cup, smiled apologetically at him and offered to cover the cost.

Ron nodded slowly, and the three of them glanced at each other - because they all knew who Ron's target had been. Hermione bolted.

But Cho was nothing if not persistent, and it wasn't long before their trio was in complete shambles, with Harry the only one left surviving.

Now though, he was on guard. Harry peered out behind the tree and examined the scene before him. Everything around him looked ordinary, but he felt like there was someone out there watching him. But where?

A twig snapped behind him, and Harry jumped to his feet, ready to bolt at a moment's notice. He paused when he saw the bushy brown hair and the raised eyebrow.

"Hermione!" he exclaimed, then sank back onto his knees. "Don't scare me like that."

She, unbelievably, rolled her eyes at him. "No one's going to attack you out in the open like this."

Harry pursed his lips. "You're just bitter because you're out."

Hermione scowled at him, them shoved him out of the cover of the trees. Harry hissed at her in shock.

"If that makes you happy, I suppose," she said. " I'm meeting up with Ron in the dining hall for lunch. Are you coming?"

Harry cast another suspicious glance all around before slowly inching out. "You'll be my shield won't you? If anyone comes charging at me."

"Don't be a baby," she said, but let him hunch behind her as they walked down the paved path into the dining hall. "So how many people are left then, do you know?"

"Just two people now," Harry said. "It's either me or this other guy. We got a message from the leaders about the status of the game just this morning."

"It's amazing you made it this far though," Hermione said.

"Yeah!" Harry exclaimed, a little breathless with pride. "Out of two hundred people too! It was all thanks to you two though, to be honest."

Hermione smiled, pleased. They pushed open the doors to the dining hall, shivering appreciably at the rush of warm air, then hurried over to where Ron was saving them a spot by the fireplace.

"Oh, hey Harry," he said, mouth full of food. He swallowed it all down. "I thought you were trying to scope out your guy?"

Harry sank into the seat next to him and stole a chicken leg from Ron's plate. "Yeah, but I can't find him _anywhere_. You'd think a professor as popular as Tom Riddle would be easier to spot. I checked out all his favourite haunts too."

But at that exact moment, the PA crackled.

' _Harry Potter'_ , came a smooth voice through the overhead. ' _You have two hours to meet me at University Square, where we will settle this feud once and for all. Neither of us can live while the other survives_.'

And with that, the PA shut off. The three of them stared at each other, as did the other students in the dining hall.

"Man, English professors are the worst," Ron grumbled. "What's with that fancy talk? What literature novel did he steal that out of anyways?"

Hermione simply tutted. "Is he even allowed to do that? Well anyways Harry, better eat up."

Harry groaned, but got up obligingly.

Harry had gotten Hermione and Ron to go scope out the situation and they had reported thus. Sneaking up behind him wouldn't be the best way to go about it… no, he'd be found out in an instance. The Square was large and open and Professor Riddle could see him from a while away.

It would be best to face him head to head. So Harry walked out. For a moment, all was silent. None of the students talked to each other, as if they could sense the solemnity of the moment.

Two months of hard work. No, he would not let it go to waste.

The two of them withdraw their balled socks from their pockets at the same time. The victor would be decided in a moment… his timing was crucial.

Harry planted his feet in the ground, turned to the side, and threw as hard as he could. The two socks glanced off each others', but only Harry's had enough momentum to continue sailing forward to hit Professor Riddle in the shoulder.

A resounding cheer sounded from the audience, and Lee Jordan and the Weasley twins, the leaders of the game of Assassin, burst forth from the crowd.

They grabbed his wrist and raised it high in the air, and seeing the euphoric expressions on the new friends he had made, Harry couldn't be happier.


End file.
